PowerEdge T610 12Gbs controller and 10Gb network - newbie

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imcontreras

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Oct 30, 2012
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Hi,
My name it's Antonio, living in chicago, strong DIY person.

I've played with FreeNAS and feel I'm ready to make the jump to production, but I'm still newbie on building freeNAS systems and best components.

Please forgive me if like any other newbie my ideas are not meeting specs and standars, would love any input and thanks in advance.

I've a PowerEdge T610
32GB Ecc ram
with a PERC 6i and a HDD Backplane 0F313F

I want to use this for a freenas server.

For the controller, I'm thinking on getting
LSI Broadcom SAS 9300-8i 8-port 12Gb/s SATA+SAS PCI-Express 3.0 Low Profile Host Bus Adapter
Q: If any better option for a 12Gb/s controller will be nice to read some recomendations.

I'm planing to buy 8TB HD
HGST Ultrastar He8 | HUH728080AL5200 | 0F23268 | 8TB 7.2K SAS 12Gb/s RPM 256MB Cache

The server HDD Backplane it's a DELL Model: 0F313F
Q: Will this HDD Backplane will work with my controller and will I be able to get 12 Gb/s? (main question)

For the cables I'm planing to get:
Cable Matters Internal Mini SAS to Mini SAS Cable (SAS 3.0 12 Gbps) 3.3 Feet / 1m
Q: If any better option, will be nice to read some recomendations.

We need to expand our vide file server, I think we can reuse this old server if we get a 10Gb network between our FreeNAS and 2 new imac pro (10Gb)

FreeNAS 10Gb network card
Intel Ethernet Converged Network Adapter X540T1
Q: If any better option, will be nice to read some recomendations.

Switch:
NETGEAR 16-Port 10Gig Smart Managed Plus Switch, 16x10GBASE-T, 1xSFP+, ProSAFE

If you got this far thanks or your patience.
Happy Friday!

Antonio
 

kdragon75

Wizard
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Aug 7, 2016
Messages
2,457
Unless you're getting 12Gb/s, and more than 4, I wouldn't bother with the 12Gb/s SAS controller and just use a 6Gb/s. Also from what I can't tell the backplane is just a passthrough backplane so it might work fine.
 

onceler

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Sep 11, 2017
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9
I have a Dell T610, running freenas. While it works, I'm currently in the process of replacing it, for two reasons.
  1. It draws a lot of power (nearly 200W when idle). Admittedly, that's with 2 CPUs, 12 RAM sticks, and 8 HDDs, but it's still twice what a system just one generation newer would need.
  2. The case doesn't sufficiently cool the HDDs. Without overriding the fan speed, the disks get way too hot (during the first scrub I did, the SMART temperatures reached 50C), and if the fans are turned up enough to keep the drive temperatures under control, the system it far too noisy to have in the same room. And there's no way of adding more fans, or replacing the existing ones with quieter fans.
So I would hesitate to recommend using the T610 at all, if you have other options. But if you do use it:
  • The backplane is SAS2, so you will only get 6G speeds from it at best. It has 2 SFF-8087 ("Mini SAS") connectors for connecting to the controller.
  • You don't need expensive SAS HDDs. SATA drives work just fine.
  • It seems you already know that you'll need to replace the PERC 6i controller that comes with it (it doesn't support IT mode).
  • If you get a SAS2 controller, it will probably also use SFF-8087 connectors. The PERC 6i does not. So you will need to replace the 2 cables from controller to backplane.
  • There's no reason to use a SAS3 controller (even if you weren't limited by the SAS2 backplane, HDDs aren't fast enough to use the extra speed). But if you already have the LSI SAS 9300 controller you mention, note that it uses SFF8643 ("Mini SAS HD") connectors, so will need different cables.
 
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